Mill Rock Packaging Partners

Mill Rock Packaging Partners

Tim Burns and Randy Reber founded Mill Rock Packaging Partners in 2020 as a dedicated investment vehicle focused exclusively on acquiring and growing mid-sized packaging companies. The firm operates in partnership with Mill Rock Capital, a growth-oriented private equity firm. This structure allows the packaging platform to pursue a buy-and-build strategy across the specialty packaging landscape without the distractions of a diversified fund mandate. Mill Rock Packaging Partners concentrates on manufacturing businesses that produce rigid and flexible packaging — folding cartons, labels, shrink sleeves, and specialty converted products. The firm targets companies serving end markets such as consumer packaged goods, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals. Its strategy emphasizes operational improvements and add-on acquisitions, not financial engineering. Geographic focus centers on North America, though the supply chains of portfolio companies often span into Mexico and Asia. As a platform formed during the pandemic-era supply chain reshuffling, scale remains opaque — the firm does not publicly disclose total commitments or team size. It operates from New York. In December 2021, the firm announced the acquisition of Keystone Paper & Box Company, a Connecticut-based producer of premium folding cartons, marking its first publicly named platform investment (per Packaging Dive, 2021). The structural differentiator lies in its single-sector mandate married to a permanent capital partner. Mill Rock Packaging Partners is not a fund with a sunset; it is a holding company architect blending sponsor capital with operator DNA. Burns and Reber each bring decades of packaging-industry operating experience — an uncommon depth for a buyout shop — positioning the firm less as a financial buyer and more as an orchestrated consolidator.